"A Committee of Correspondence"

21 November 2015

"Barrel Bombs and Bullshit" by Walrus

Consortium News has published an article by Robert Parry entitled "Tangled Threads Of US False Narratives" about the outright misinformation preached by Washington regarding the Middle East and Russia. The article was retitled "Barrel Bombs and Bullshit" by the less than reverent Zerohedge.com. It is worth reading not because it confirms the SST accepted wisdom (The Borg) but because it examines the hypocrisy of the mainstream media in more detail. It also comes to the same conclusion; departing too far from reality in relations between nuclear armed States risks frying the plane

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One way to view Official Washington is to envision a giant bubble that serves as a hothouse for growing genetically modified “group thinks.” Most inhabitants of the bubble praise these creations as glorious and beyond reproach, but a few dissenters note how strange and dangerous these products are. Those critics, however, are then banished from the bubble, leaving behind an evermore concentrated consensus.

This process could be almost comical – as the many armchair warriors repeat What Everyone Knows to Be True as self-justifying proof that more and more wars and confrontations are needed – but the United States is the most powerful nation on earth and its fallacious “group thinks” are spreading a widening arc of chaos and death around the globe.

In a less than joyful vein, I am sorry to announce that the good old Australian Broadcasting Commission (Public Radio) has also "drunk the Kool Aid". My morning coffee was soured by reading this think piece by a purported ABC Middle East correspondent blaming President Assad for the rise of IS - a classic R2P harpy if ver there was one.

"The Syrian conflict continues with no end in sight and as long as the West fails to act against the Assad government, Islamic State will continue to flourish, writes Middle East correspondent Sophie McNeill.

It is a war that has now lasted five years and killed a quarter of a million people, while 10 million have fled their homes.

This week, Syrian government warplanes dropped four rockets on a crowded marketplace in Douma, just outside the capital Damascus. killing over 100 people.

Just a few hours after the attack, I sat in the ABC Middle East bureau and watched camera phone footage of its immediate aftermath.

It was horrific. A desperate man rushed through the dust, carrying a bloodied child over his shoulder.

Dozens of dead bodies lay on the ground amongst blown out buildings and destroyed market stalls.

The children are the worst part. Their tiny bodies caught up in a horrific game the adults have been playing.

The United Nations said 111 civilians were killed in the airstrikes and at least 200 injured.

For its part, the Syrian military did not deny it had launched airstrikes on the town that day — it told news agencies they were targeting a rebel group called Islam army that has been staging rocket attacks on Damascus.

But there was no doubt this was a civilian target — a market. There was a surreal number of tomatoes strewn amongst the dead…….

……..Mr Assad's unpunished crimes in Syria have been, and continue to be, a huge recruitment tool for the terrorists.

They are fighting to overthrow Mr Assad's regime and every time he commits another massacre it is a PR win for them.

The video I watched, of the children killed in the market, was the same kind of video that has inspired many young foreign fighters to go and join IS…….".

Sophie has a conveniently short and highly selective memory.

These are the morons we are up against. Read it provided you can avoid vomiting.

Comments

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Moron maybe. I would assume it more likely she is on some clandestine service's payroll. It has all the earmarks of being a hit job.

The people that actually created and are funding ISIS, Al Qaeda el al are desperately trying to shift the blame and cover their tracks

This is especially true now that Sheriff Putin has declared that the full force of Russia is coming down on all involved in the downing of Metrojet Airbus A321, and he won't rest until they receive their due. You can bet the Spetsnaz is on the case.

People writing about Martians. No wonder it borders science fiction and fantasy. I was born and raised in Russia and heard many such stories about US. The only difference is that history usually happens not In North America and Australia, so not every fantasy is equally harmless.

I keep emailing ABC correcting its anti-Syrian/anti-Russian propaganda - chemical weapons which it blithely blames on Assad. It is a lost cause. Just ignore all of its foreign reporting. I just wish I could stop paying for it. But what is the alternative: Murdoch? Fairfax?

Regarding the alleged Douma market attack I find it well worth noting that the area of Douma is quite close to the Ain Tarma area where the Ghouta chemical attacks happened two years ago. Both, Douma and Ain Tarma, are under control of a Saudi-Turkish backed former FSA islamist rebel boss called Zahran Alloush.

ABC Australia is highly deceptive and lying when it writes in that article: "Photo: The Assad government claimed responsibility for the airstrikes on a Douma market that killed 100 people."

That's simply not true. The government had confirmed that it carried out operations against terrorists in the Douma area, but it did not "claimed responsibility for the airstrikes on a Douma market" that "killed 100 people." What exactly the Syrian government claimed responsibility for would be easy to check for every journalist, but apparently ABC intentionally did misrepresent this in the description of the photo. And in the text ABC seems to know better, too, as it wrote: "For its part, the Syrian military did not deny it had launched airstrikes on the town that day — it told news agencies they were targeting a rebel group called Islam army that has been staging rocket attacks on Damascus."

The theater of operations near Douma is the nearby highway from Damascus to Homs. Alloushs rebels had infiltrated over the highway a couple of weeks ago, cutting off the highway, so that traffic from Damascus to Homs needed to take a detour via Al Tal. It was expected because since the Zabadani route from Lebanon is closed, Alloush has a problem to bring in ammo and suppplies into his Ghouta rebel pocket. But then, no surprise here neither, the Syrian army hit back to clear the highway and Alloushs rebels suffered heavy losses there.

And then suddenly the alleged Douma market attack came. A video taken by Alloushs guys from that event have shown screaming bloody people running around, poeple with missing limbs were shown, many bloody bodies which apperently flew meters through the market tables, all the while five or six can high decorated food can towers were standing tall and tidy as ever on the market tables in the very same video where allegedly bloody people were flying around from the power of detonations. The untouched and tidy food can towers led me to the conclusion that the Douma market attack was staged by Alloush and his people in a similar way as the Ghouta chemical attacks, probably using some of the caged prisoners he has just shown publicly being used as stage prop after cutting them off some of their limbs.

Amen to that. Alt media/citizen journalism + keyed in commenters is the way to go. Only way to find out what is really up, often days, even weeks ahead of mainstream on emerging situations. We all need to do what we can to safeguard this resource... it will be coming under increased pressure as this complex conflict heats up. I know everyone here has their congress cretins contact pages bookmarked right? It's a small thing but it does help.https://www.govtrack.us/ pay attention... :-)

Unfortunately yours is the type of conspiracy-laden rhetoric that only serves to obfuscate any efforts to paint Assad's Syria in a realistic light...civilians die in airstrikes and this is certainly nothing new for the 5 years the war has gone on. Realistic arguments such as those critically investigating the dubious allegations of chemical weapons, the ridiculous nature of MSM pontificating on the evil of barrel bombs etc are one thing, but you have gone over the deep end and this only hurts the cause of truth. By the way, the case of the caged prosoners occured directly after the market attack, and was announced as a direct response to it,so that aspect of your theory can be safely put to rest.

Absolutely correct, the restrictions on internet reporting are coming down like a ton of bricks here in Turkey, since MSM is under the thumb and ownership of the Turkish Borg here. But it is a losing cause for them, because people like me who gets his information exactly like you are too nimble and resourceful. Plus we are not alone, as this site is the living and standing proof.

Sorry for not being clear enough. I don't dispute that quite often civilians die in airstrikes, too, be them by the Syrian army or by others. I don't dispute neither that Alloush put his prisoners on display in cages only after the alleged attack on the Douma market.

My points are different:

1. ABC made a claim that is plain false. The Syrian government did not - as ABC alleges - "claim responsibility for the airstrikes on a Douma market." The Syrian government fights Alloushs rebels at the highway area near Douma and alleged that it bombed them in the wider Douma area.

2. Zahran Alloush who "rules" in Douma is an especially ruthless islamist rebel leader. As his CW false flag attack in Ghouta shows he is perfectly capable of staging a massacre, even one that includes killing many people of the population he governs. As his military fortunes were fading Alloush has a motive to stage false flag massacres to get more international support, too.

3. The videos released by fellows of Allosh from the alleged "Douma market massacre" show clear indications that the "Douma market massacre" was a staged event like the "Ghouta chemical attack."

4. Zahran Alloush holds captives. As displaying captives in cages shows he shows no respect for the diganity or wellbeing of his captives. Therefore the possibility that he maimed captives for false flag propaganda purposes should be taken into account.

What I didn't say is that I follow Zahran Alloush quite a long time rather intensively, and did so already before he staged the chemical false flag attack in Ghouta. Zahran Alloush is also on record on video to order his men to turture his opponents to death in a most painful way, so the idea that he would maim captives for the purpose of producing false flag propaganda material is not outlandish at all.

I apologize for my terse tone, just that I've had it up to my eyes in propagandist narratives from both sides of the conflict to the point of this output rivalling that of theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict. I wouldn't put it past Zahran or his backers to stage a false flag either, but in this specific case everything indicates that it was just another punitive action against rebel-held civilian areas in response to government civilian areas being targeted by the rebels. I'd say it is just another hallmark of this dirty war, but there is nothing particularly dirty about the conflict in the immediate historical context of wars in the region

"The UN concluded that in the first eight months of 2014, at least 9,347 civilians had been killed and at least 17,386 wounded. While all these deaths are not attributable to ISIS alone, ISIS is identified as the primary actor. "
Peanuts, for a relatively high intensity sectarian civil war,and the figures are from those killed by both sides to boot. Civilian tolls were many times this in '06 alone. We are not fighting IS for their putative brutality, just like we are not fighting Assad for such. These reasons are the reasons given by the media circus.

All
I have long ago gave up on my National Public Radio station . I do trust and enjoy Tom Ashbrook On Point but that is it. All the rest have drank the KoolAid ! Send my limited discretionary $$ to SST & Pro Publica now !

May be a book to get your hands on "Les chemins de Damas" :( The Roads of Damascus, the black dossier of Franco-Syrian relations) by French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot

"One diplomat who was in contact with the two agencies explained that both were convinced that Assad would not fall quickly, but that internal intelligence noticed rapidly the role of salafis and jihadis in the rebellion, while the foreign intelligence continued to send reports demonizing the Assad regime."

1. all four impact sites have been geolocated and they map to an arc consistent with launching of ground-based rockets from a field 820 metres to the south, with the launcher turned 11 degrees after each launch. This launch point is inside rebel-controlled territory.

2. Of the 125 documented fatalities almost all are adult males. This sex segregation is more consistent with a massacre of captives than an attack on civilians in a market

3. An photo released by the opposition "Civil Defence" at 2.23 pm shows the bodies of about 40 men and boys laid out in a courtyard, no longer bleeding. This photo has been geolocated to a schoolyard about one mile :north of the impact. The photo has very clear shadows that make it possible to estimate the solar elevation and azimuth accurately. Our latest estimates give a time of about 1 pm for this photo. The market attacks appear to have happened about 1.20 pm. In other words, the victims in the photo were dead before the rocket impacts.

As Bandolero notes, Zahran Alloush's group has a track record of managed massacres of civilians, which are then attributed to the regime. The German blogger Urs1798 has summarized the evidence pointing to Alloush as prime suspect for the Ghouta chemical attacks on this page

I just noticed my mistake regarding the alleged "Douma market attack." I spoke about the "Douma market attack" which allegedly happened on October 30, 2015, and where were allegedly, - varying by the sources - allegedly "at least 40" (Guardian) or "at least 89" (Reuters) people were killed, and "about 100" (Guardian and Reuters) or 550 (MSF) people were wounded on a Douma market.

It was the alleged "Douma market attack" on Oct 30, 2015, from which I watched some videos from Alloushs PR guys, saw that - while bodies allegedly flew around - some neatly decorated high towers of food cans did not fall from the tables before the bodies and concluded therefore it was a staged event.

But, of course, I stand by my comment that Alloush is an especially ruthless rebel leader and one should take into consideration that he may stage events like bloody false flag attaacks which may include torture, maiming and may also involve killing of some people he claims to rule.

My bad that I didn't notice that the ABC newspiece was from August and not a fresh one from November. Sorry for the confusion.

There is a much smaller micro-network of public radio stations news called Free Speech Radio Network. They also take donations, though hardly anyone hears about it because NPR is so much bigger and richer, and can shout so much louder.https://fsrn.org/